Friday, April 6, 2018

Really, it's OK

So about yesterday...No, there was nothing wrong with me...or my
mother. It was just late at night, I was completely uninspired, I thought
something would come to me while I was falling asleep, but it didn't and I
finally decided to just take a day off. Sorry about that!

It's not that the day was without its own high points. I
got a very long email from a friend from whom I have not heard in more than five
years. She was one of those folks I thought had written me off (no, not
Peggy) but it was a wonderful mail, with an update on all of her family,
followed today by lots of photos. I haven't had the time to respond yet,
but look forward to sitting down and writing to her. It's so nice to know
that I'm not in her bad graces after all.

I also had a nice audio message from Ilyse and there are lots of
things I want to say back to her, but have not yet. One thing she talked
about, when we were discussing her Instant Pot was the taco pie that she makes,
in a spring form pan in the Instant Pot. She says it's a staple in their
house and she makes it often. Now, in truth, it's something that would be
easy to make in the regular oven, but I was intrigued about cooking in a spring
form pan in the instant pot. (Many have told me I MUST try a cheesecake).

I have a spring form pan and have used it often over the years,
but it's a standard size and you need a 7" pan to fit inside the pot, so I
ordered one from Amazon, which was delivered today, and I will make the pie
tonight. Then I can record a message and let Ilyse know how I liked
it.

A sort of low point of the day was a message from Atria on my
cell phone telling me that my mother is refusing to take her meds. They
said it's not an emergency, but they are supposed to let me know. Well,
that explains why she is complaining about pain in her arm again. Duhhh.

Today I had a great time at lunch at the other senior
living facility in town with 7 friends with whom I have lunch 2 or 3 times a
year. The occasion of our meeting is usually that our friend Grainne is
about to return to Ireland. Grainne comes to Davis a few times a year to
house set for friends here. She's such a delightful person.

Being Irish, she tells a great story and entertained us with the
tale of her 3 a.m. battle with the escalator at the Dublin airport, where in
trying to handle her suitcase, she fell down the up elevator. Of course
she made it into a funny story, but the fact that there were medical folks there
who wanted to take her in for an exam shows that it was more than just a little
injury. They told her she needed to be sure to get a tetanus shot as soon
as she got to her final destination, which she did.

The funny thing about her story was that four other people
at the table had elevator accident stories, either something that happened to
them or something that happened to someone they knew (I did not add the episode
of Modern Family where Claire, naked under her coat, is going up a hotel
escalator for a rendez vous with husband Phil when the belt of her coat
gets caught in the escalator. Of course everyone she knows happens by and
doesn't understand why she doesn't just take the coat off.

But I'll tell ya, when faced with an escalator the next time, I
might opt for taking the elevator instead.

The organizer of the lunch was our friend Joan. Joan is
very politically active and has been hosting regular post-card writing sessions,
for people get together to write postcards to legislature about one outrageous
thing or another -- there is something every week.

She has also been making her own post cards, this one relating to
the Sinclair Broadcasting mandatory statement to be read by all their
newscasters as a diatribe against what they call "fake news."

(Whoever put together this video of all of the newscasters
reading the same statement, together, was brilliant.)

I don't know how effective this barrage of post cards from little
Davis, California in Congress, but if there is any effect at all, Joan deserves
high praise!

Anyway, it was a lovely lunch with good friends and we were able
to linger for 2 hours. Then I came home and took a nap since I'd been up
since 1:45 a.m. (with a short nap between 7 and 9).